Abortion order creates awkward questions for Maine's Susan Collins … The heist began in earnest five years ago.  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly, and President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a center-left, compromise jurist — who'd been recommended by Senate Republicans — to fill the vacancy.

Why I Won't Support Spending Another $3.5 Trillion  —  Amid inflation, debt and the inevitability of future crises, Congress needs to take a strategic pause.  —  The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future.

Remington Subpoenas Report Cards of Five Children Killed in Sandy Hook Shooting  —  As part of a lawsuit defense, the company that made the guns used in the Sandy Hook shooting demanded the disciplinary and attendance records of dead children.  —  Gun company Remington has subpoenaed the report cards …

Joe Manchin Has Put Biden's Presidency in Mortal Danger The mercurial senator calls for a “pause” when Democrats desperately need to move fast.  —  One of the most bullish indicators for Joe Biden's presidency came just a week after his inauguration, when Joe Manchin said, “We're going to make Joe Biden successful.”

Ex-prosecutor indicted for misconduct in Ahmaud Arbery death  —  SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Georgia prosecutor was indicted Thursday on misconduct charges alleging she used her position to shield the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery from being charged with crimes immediately after the shootings.

‘QAnon Shaman’ Reaches Plea Deal, Now ‘Repudiates’ Association With ‘Q,’ Lawyer Says  —  Jacob Chansley's lawyer called for “patience and compassion” for his client, who he said has “genuine mental health issues.”  —  The man known as the “QAnon Shaman” has reached a plea deal …

James Simons, Robert Mercer, Others at Renaissance to Pay $7 Billion to Settle Tax Probe  —  Tax settlement that may be the largest in history  —  Executives of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC will personally pay approximately $7 billion in back taxes and penalties to settle …

Kevin McCarthy among GOP lawmakers whose phone records January 6 select committee asks to be preserved  —  (CNN)House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is among a group of GOP lawmakers whose phone records are of interest to the select committee investigating the deadly January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, CNN has learned.

TikToker Makes Script to Flood Texas Abortion ‘Whistleblower’ Site With Fake Info  —  An easy to use iOS shortcut lets non-technical users bombard the site, according to Motherboard's tests.  —  Joseph Cox  —  An activist has made a script to flood a Texas website used to solicit information …

Those Flooded Basement Apartments are a Deadly Part of the Housing Crisis  —  Eight of the nine people who died during the Hurricane Ida floods last night were exactly where emergency alerts told them was the safest place to be: their homes.  Specifically, they were in their own basement apartments in Queens and in one case, Brooklyn.

Here's what made the New York City flooding so devastating  —  The intensity of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ida converged with urban sprawl, previous downpours and climate change for a flash-flood disaster  —  The remnants of Hurricane Ida unloaded a historic and catastrophic deluge …

Trapped in Basements and Cars, They Lost Their Lives in Savage Storm  —  The storm's victims included at least 15 people in New York State and 23 in New Jersey.  Some died as waters inundated their basement homes.  —  At 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Mingma Sherpa, who lived in a basement apartment …

Trump's Plot to Steal Arizona Was Even Wilder Than We Thought  —  A massive data dump of emails, texts, and documents show Trump's allies were heavily involved in the bogus Arizona audit.  —  For months now, we all thought we knew that the bogus Arizona audit was a clown show.

Americans Don't Really Hate Density  —  They hate other Americans  —  You may have seen a recent Pew survey result making the rounds on urbanism twitter.  It is a dispiriting finding if you believe (which you should believe, because it's simply true) that many of the land use …

Tree of Life synagogue disputes Biden's claim he visited after massacre  —  President Biden on Thursday told Jewish leaders that he spent time at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the October 2018 mass murder of 11 people there -but the synagogue told The Post he never visited.

The Effects of Increased Funding for the IRS  —  Last month, the Congressional Budget Office published An Analysis of Certain Proposals in the President's 2022 Budget.  Since then, CBO has completed its analysis of another proposal in the President's budget, an increase in spending …

Exclusive: Silicon Valley investor dismissed racism, called BLM “the true racists”  —  A notable venture capitalist and board member at the public company behind iconic brands like The North Face and Timberland was dismissive of racism in the U.S. and called Black Lives Matter “the true racists,” according to emails obtained by Axios.

The juvenile 'It's horse paste!' critique of Ivermectin  —  The Nobel Prize in medicine in 2015 went to two scientists whose experiments on a type of bacteria and subsequent modifications produced a compound that led to “a new class of drugs with extraordinary efficacy against parasitic diseases …

Longitudinal analysis of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections reveal limited infectious virus shedding and restricted tissue distribution  —  Ruian Ke, Pamela Martinez, Rebecca Lee Smith, Laura Gibson, Chad Achenbach, Sally McFall, Chao Qi, Joshua Jacob, Etienne Dembele, Camille Bundy …

Biden's Approval Rating Hits A New Low After The Afghanistan Withdrawal  —  Amid the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden's approval rating slid to just 43% in the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.  —  That is down 6 percentage points from a survey conducted …

Heeding Steve Bannon's Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP — and Reshape America's Elections  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.

In the shadow of the towers: Five lives and a world transformed  —  (Genelle Guzman by Elias Williams for The Washington Post; Ronie Huddleston by Caleb Alvarado for The Washington Post; Raymond Pfeifer, family photo; Hina Shamsi by Kholood Eid for The Washington Post; and Mariam el Fazazi by Marzena Skubatz for The Washington Post)